Visiting Holiday World – Keeping it Clean

Several years ago my kids got me hooked on a video game called “Roller Coaster Tycoon“. I loved building fantastic rides and increasing the energy of the park by dropping in costumed characters and placing fountains at every corner. But I was never able to get the right ratio of trash cans and cleaning staff to the number of park guests which meant that riders threw up more, they complained about the state of the park and eventually, I my parks closed for lack of funds.

I doubt that this will ever happen at Holiday World. They have cleanliness down to a “T”. Everywhere you turn there are young men and women in blue shirts with their brooms and dust-bins at the ready. They are worker bees buzzing from one location to the next, sweeping up messes and emptying trash at a rapid rate. I watched two young men bus tables with energy and focus. Something I could never get my cleaning staff to do in Tycoon!

In the two days that we were in the park, I never saw ONE trash can overflowing, even at the busiest times of day. The only location where trash was on the ground was a poorly constructed holding area in the Mammoth water slide. There were no trash cans and people threw their paper cups into an opening between the rows.

Despite this one gap in design, there were more trash cans at more locations than I’ve ever seen in any other park. The staff were hard working and friendly, no matter what mess they were addressing at the time. It is no wonder that they’ve been named the #1 Cleanest Park for 11 straight years.

Now if I could only get them to help me with my video games and my own living room.